The Importance Of The Panama Canal

For centuries, the idea of how to access the West Indies puzzled many sailors from across the globe. During colonial times, Europeans coveted the spices and goods found in Asian countries, but the inability of their sponsored expeditions to discover a time-saving western passageway hindered their interaction with this region of the world. As time progressed, nations began to find ways to trade with Asia, but the routes taken were long, expensive, and hazardous. According to an article found in the publication, Civil Engineering, “… the only way for a ship to travel between the oceans was via the Strait of Magellan, at the southern tip of South America, a dangerous and time-consuming route.” However, in nineteen fourteen, their struggles finally ended. At last, the completion of the Panama Canal provided a shorter sea route between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean for trading countries all over the world. This occasion revolutionized sea travel and was consequently a widely documented and publicized event. Countless images and articles were created throughout the early twentieth century, which magnified the importance of this project. This collection of primary sources captures the significance of the Panama Canal for the American people and the international community at that time. The synchronic analysis of such documents will foster a greater appreciation for the Panama Canal and the influence it has had on civilization since its inception.

The astounding achievement of building the Panama Canal did not come without great loss. Within great achievement and betterment of the world, sometimes comes great tragedy. Great change also doesn’t happen without a strong fight. The workers who helped build the canal knew what they were up against. They knew that famine, disease, dangerous jobs, and a great deal of loss of human life laid ahead, but these workers were willing to sacrifice everything to see this canal built. They knew the economic implications of having a canal like this. They wanted to make their personal country’s economy better environments for their wives and children to thrive in and make a better life for their ancestors. This could be done with the money they made working on the canal, as well as how their own children would live in more stable economies in their home countries because of the canal. They were willing to fight for the great change that eventually ensued.

The construction of the Panama Canal has a number of important foreign policy implies, First it led to the United States' supporting independent factions, who separated the republic of Panama from Colombia, and it also led to the granting of sovereign land rights to the United States over the Panama Canal Zone. The Panama Canal had massive suggestions for

The Panama Canal is an important part of Panama and United States history. The Panama Canal was constructed in order to make the journey from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean shorter. This is extremely important because it shortens the journey for cargo ships making them financially more efficient. The Panama Canal was once owned by the United States but is now owned by Panama. The Panama Canal is a perfect example of countries working together for a common goal.

Before steamboats and railroads it was really hard to transport any kind of goods. The only way goods could be transport was though sea. When the Erie Canal was built it brought many benefits to New York. People would travel in large boats through the Erie Canal. It was indeed one of the most important ways of transportation in the sea for New York City. It helped populate the country better for being well known for their selling products. The Erie Canal brought up the economy with their different products. Some of the products included crops, animal meat, and domestic products etc. New York City was the center of money, business, and trading. Therefore, the Erie Canal was a great resource to make all the trading possible. The Erie Canal was

It is interesting to see how Americans saw themselves and their capitalistic system during the early 1900s. The American quest to civilize the world with plans like the Panama Canal was referred to as a gift, a selfless act from the United States for the betterment of mankind (Herring 2008, 337). I am certain that the Panama Canal created many opportunities for the people in Central America, but was it in fact a sign of American kindness or was that canal done because it increased trade, income, and improved security in the United States? Furthermore, how wrong was Norman Angell? His theory did not hold for more than four years. Mankind is incapable of achieving peace and will continue to live in a constant state of struggle. Additionally, the early 1900s had a resemblance to the Cold War that started four decades later. The Russians and the British encircled Germany and contained her, and yet Stalin was surprise when the allies did the same to him after WWII?

The relationship between the United States of America and Latin America nations has been turbulent since the beginning of colonization. The United States had withheld a sense of superiority since its inception. Their view of Pan-Americanism is only shared by them; Canada and most Latin American nations do not share this view. They viewed Latin America’s struggle for independence as a necessity, but did not pledge their assistance until it coincided with American interests and objectives in the area. The author mentions Latin America’s one-crop economy, but they do not emphasize the role the US played in their economies or how much they were involved in their own politics. Recent events, in regards to Cuba, have made certain parts of the chapter

Constructing the Panama Canal was not easy, they had to overcome diseases, deaths, machine problems and many more. Yellow fever has been around for centuries and the workers in panama contracted it. Not only that but mosquitoes that were carrying around malaria got a lot of the population sick/ infected. A man named walter reed had contracted malaria and survived. He requested 1 million for sanitation and killing mosquitoes but got denied, then he got the money he requested. He reduced the amount of infected people down to 5%. Besides diseases and animals there were bigger problems. The land. It was not level and there were mountains in the way. So they built locks to go over the mountains, but there is also flooding there so they built a dam. Still to this day their are still problems with the

The border region has seen “rapid transformation in a short span of time, changing from a cattle ranching and mining area that attracted U.S., Mexican and European capitalists…to the center of a lucrative vice and pleasure-based tourist industry, to a region that …attracted an extraordinary amount of international capital to its manufacturing and services sector”. (Ganster/Lorey 2) Events and years such as the implementation of the railroad, the years before the Mexican Revolution, the land reform in 1936 and 1937, the implementation of the maquiladora program and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a significant impact on the U.S. Mexican Borderlands.

John Latane wrote his article The Effects of the Panama Canal on Our Relations with Latin America in 1914 and claims that since the Panama Canal, new policies are being formed, “The building of the canal has, in the first place, rendered inevitable the adoption of a policy of naval supremacy in the Caribbean Sea, and, in the second place, it has led to the formulation of new political policies to be applied in the zone of the Caribbean…” He goes on to say how these policies have given the U.S. control of canal routes, ability to acquire naval bases in the area, set up satellites, and requires governments to be constitutional and have the consent of its citizens. The scope the Panama Canal goes beyond just the simple control of a waterway. By having the canal, the U.S. was inserting greater dominance in the Caribbean Sea and in Latin American countries. The Monroe Document was designed by the U.S. to keep European powers from interfering with

This is a good thing about Latin America because it would probably impact the economy if it wasn’t there. It is the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is a waterway that brings together the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. It really helped trade in Latin America. The canal was built by the Americans in 1904 and a lot of leaders took over the project, including John Wallace, John Stevens and George Washington Goethals. The project was finished in 1914 after taking 10 years to build. The Panama Canal is an important feature to Latin America because it is a quicker way to import and export goods or cargo. It made it easier because instead of going all the way around South America you can go through Panama which saves you a lot of time. That means a lot of more ships pass through. If there was no Panama Canal like I said it would take a lot longer to travel to bring stuff somewhere by water. I also think there would be less ships traveling because not a lot of people would like to travel a long time at sea. I also think a lot of people would die because the trip would take so long. That is how the Panama Canal impacted Latin America in a good way.

The leaders of Nicaragua, more formally known as the Republic of Nicaragua, have had fresh discussion whether or not to construct a canal through their country to compete with the famous Panama Canal. For nearly two hundred years government officials and investors have pondered whether or not the immense task of constructing a Nicaragua Canal would be economically viable or even plausible; as a result, the subject has been brought back up publically with the history, the present situation, and also the future in mind while formulating plans to make this age-old idea become a reality.

Before reading this article, I initially was actually was pretty clueless as to what the purpose behind the Panama Canal was. So to learn that it all was created just to prevent ships from sailing the long distance around South America made a whole lot of sense as to why they would have created the canal in the first place. I would think that this would of had to have made a positive impact on importing and exporting goods between continents. Also, not to mention the canal made it much safer for the men and women who work on these ships. Furthermore, with the amount of ships that travel through the canal, “14,000 ships between the Atlantic and the Pacific each year,” I am surprised to hear that it was a once abandoned constructions project

While reading the case study about the problems during the structure of the Panama Canal, I identified two principles of warfare that can be applied to our own “Scorges” in the Marine Corps. Executing “Training”, and “Orienting on the enemy”, are two important warfighting principles that were not properly executed during the initial phase of the construction. The “standing water” that we see today in the Marine Corps can be tied back to these two principle of warfighting which i will be explaining.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, isthmian political leaders developed a growing ambition for independence. “Panama subsequently declared its independence from Colombia in 1830, 1831, and 1840, but each time the separation was quickly aborted. From 1819, Panama was part of the federation and country of Colombia but when Colombia rejected United States plans to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, the U.S. supported a revolution that led to the independence of Panama in 1903.” After encouraging Panama’s independence from Colombia, the U.S. signed a treaty in 1903 that gave it the rights to build and operate the canal for perpetuity. The agreement also gave the U.S. the right to govern the 10-mile wide, 40-mile long strip